Vaccination Boosts Efforts to Curb Rift Valley Fever in Rwanda

When large-scale hog farms began moving into rural Iowa, many local families were forced to start making decisions about their ways of life, especially concerning their own farms and health. To fight back, the community gathered together to create a covenant. Although small in scale, other communities in the state have reached out in hopes of following their so-far successful approach.

Lansing, Michigan built an ecosystem of community violence intervention programs (anchored by Advance Peace and the Lansing Empowerment Network) that reduced shootings by 38% between 2022 and 2025. Their relationship-based outreach, mentorship, and victim support continue to prove effective despite federal funding cuts.

A professor at Keene State College, her students, and community volunteers installed affordable, commercial air monitors throughout the New Hampshire town to fill gaps in available data. The monitors help them track air quality in real time and alert the public when pollution levels rise.

In an effort against book bans, the city council of El Paso, Texas, unanimously passed a resolution that mandates every public library in the city to include a section of banned books featuring the stories of historically marginalized people.

A youth rodeo in Dodge City, Kansas, is growing in popularity while working to interest kids in ranch life and keep them interested in staying in their rural towns.

A project in Nepal helped Himalayan communities vaccinate and neuter stray dogs to prevent their ever-growing population and the related spread of diseases. When the project halted due to COVID-19, communities raised money to continue it on their own.

A citywide effort in Davis, California, that included information campaigns, opening testing sites, and free testing made getting a weekly COVID test a habitual part of life in the community. As a result, the city had lower positivity rates than the rest of the state.

In an effort to decrease noise pollution in natural spaces across the country, Quiet Parks International is seeking to certify wildlife places that are noise-free. Using data collection, the organization is able to measure the noise level in places like the Hoh Rainforest in Washington, and if it falls within a certain parameter, give it the official certification. Doing so not only raises awareness of the effects of noise pollution, but attracts tourists with similar values.

Over the last ten years, the Isle of Man has worked to implement regulations around plastic pollution, climate change and overfishing. From a locally owned beach clean-up charity to creating marine nature reserves, the Isle of Man is now a model for neighboring countries on how to achieve this level of success.

Vehicle crashes are the number one cause of death for young adults in nearly every country around the world, but the issue receives less policy attention or funding than diseases or terrorism. One clever initiative called Zusha in Kenya is using a very simple method - stickers - to spread safety messages on public transportation, and have already reduced bus accidents by as much as 25%.